Tanzania friendly set for February 9th

Palestine and Tanzania have agreed to a friendly on February 9th, an official FIFA date, in Dar es Salaam. The match has been confirmed by Tanzanian and Palestinian media but has yet to appear on the FIFA website. As we know these friendlies can sometimes be cancelled abruptly, but the fact that it is being hosted in Tanzania means there are fewer logistical hurdles to overcome.

So the friendly calendar before the AFC Challenge Cup Qualifiers in March looks like this:

@ Tanzania (09/02/11)

@ Pakistan (27/02/11)

@ Pakistan (02/03/11)

Mousa Bezaz will hand list of 50 players to the AFC. He has announced a squad of 40 players and will fill out the rest of the squad before he starts whittling down his squad to 22 players for the Challenge Cup. There is no word on who he will take with him to Tanzania and Pakistan as of yet. The squad includes 9 players plying their trade abroad, the most notable absence is that of captain Ramzi Saleh, scheduled to go under the knife on February 6th to repair ligaments in his ACL. Bezaz has included some new faces in the form of Lebanese duo Mohammed Abu Ateeq and Mustafa Hallaq.

Bezaz's list also included 12 Gazans who play in the WBPL. Historically, these players are the ones that often find themselves unable to leave the territory due to arbitrary Israeli regulations. We have included them below in red: